Pillowman - Lesson 11 - 18/12/2015

This lesson was more of a discussion based lesson and as a group we had discussed about how we were going to have our costumes etc. At first we thought that it would be a good idea to go with a smart/noir kind of costume as personally it felt that the style went with the play.

Me and Dan were to wear smart clothing with braces and maybe a fedora as it’s the noire police kind of costume and maybe have our police badges attached to our pockets.

Tom was to wear casual clothing, maybe a white top with jeans and a leather jacket.

Ashley was to wear some dungarees as it’s something that would have been worn in an older time and also it would be able to show his child like characteristics.

After discussing it, we thought that it would be slightly better to go with a modern look as it could potentially draw the audience in more easily and it would be a more simple way to get any costume where as if we went older with it we would have to invest in maybe a bit more. 

Without You

Without You is a rather sad song that we are doing as it leads up to Angels death. In the song it's mainly based on Roger and Mimi's weird and confusing relationship, however we thought that we should be telling other people's story along side theirs. We start off with Maureen (Lorna) and Joanne (Freya) coming together and then facing apart as it shows that they love each other however they're not really together at that moment in time due to their small break up. We then have Carl and Dom come onto the stage and start putting a duvet on the table and a chair next to the table. Then Finally Collins (Me) and Angel (Dan) come on to the stage, however Collins is slightly carrying Angel as she's really weak and is slowly dying. We then have Roger (Tom) and Mimi (Meg) do some sort of contemporary dance to show their emotions and how there "relationship" is and how much they mean to each other. Mean while everyone is frozen apart from Collins and Angel as this shows that Collins is supporting her in this really bad time. Once the song ends we thought that it would be a goo idea for the lights to focus on Angel to show that she's passing away and to show this, he doesn't move and then Collins places his head down.


We have done this song to show Angels passing as the fact that the song "Contact" was deemed too inappropriate to use.

Pillowman - Lesson 10 - 11/12/2015

In today’s lesson we finished off working on act 2 and started to move onto blocking act 3. This was a bit of a challenge to me as I needed to show quite a sudden change from Ariel. How at the beginning he was rather angry and acting like a dictator and then how towards the end of the act, he talks about how he feels sorry for Katurian and that he understands why Katurian has done what he was done in his past. Also in this act, you start to feel a bit sorry for Ariel due to the fact that you find out that his dad used to sexual molest him and that he killed his dad.  

I'll cover you (reprise)

Although we were good and all, when I was singing “I’ll cover you reprise”, I did have a bit of a struggle as I was riffing which I soon learnt that it was a big no no, especially for my character. Seeing as I’m playing Collins, most of the actors that tend to play him are black as it’s something that just is rather common with his character. This slightly means it doesn’t look as cringy when he sings some of his songs due to the fact that he’s got a deeper and more blues/jazz voice to me. So as a way to resolve this, I came to the conclusion that I  should maybe hold notes intead of going all over the place with them.

I had an idea that when I sing this song, the stage black and then when I start to sing a light from the back will come on forming some sort of shadow and then when I sing the lines "I'll be your shelter", the lights in front of me will rise. By doing this I feel that the lights can show that angel is in a better place but then it shows real life and how everyone's dealing with it.

Group Session 1

In today’s lesson we were told that we had all the backing tracks for the whole musical which was a relief due to the fact that I was beginning to slightly worry that I couldn’t hear my voice over the other singers and also it meant that I could work on my timing for songs such as I’ll cover you reprise and Santa Fe. So from the beginning of the lesson we started from the very beginning of rent and continued all the way through the half way through act 2. We got through a vast amount as we have had some songs cut as they’re unnecessary to the story and could be too long for our audience.  I was rather impressed as to how well that we all managed to do seeing as it was our first sing through without any of the original cast members helping.

Although we were good and all, when I was singing “I’ll cover you reprise”, I did have a bit of a struggle as I was riffing which I soon learnt that it was a big no no, especially for my character. Seeing as I’m playing Collins, most of the actors that tend to play him are black as it’s something that just is rather common with his character. This slightly means it doesn’t look as cringy when he sings some of his songs due to the fact that he’s got a deeper and more blues/jazz voice to me. So as a way to resolve this, I came to the conclusion that I  should maybe hold notes intead of going all over the place with them.

Pillowman - Lesson 9 - 04/12/2015

In this week’s lesson we finished blocking Act 1 and started to work and block Act 2. There wasn’t much to block due to it being a very long duologue and not much movement. We had to work on a way in which Tom could bang Ashley’s head against a table without having to realistically doing it. Ashley and Tom rehearsed ways in which they could do it as safely and as effectively as possible and without doing any damage. During this rehearsal someone introduced an idea of having a Russian accent. There was a bit of discussion on it however it was turned down in the end as it was hard to maintain the accent.    

Ideas Board + Seasons of love and Happy New Year

1/12/2015

In today's lesson we had a different type of lesson and we tried to sources that we can use as inspiration and how we can use some of these ideas in our set or our piece. So far I found a picture that I thought would be good for the lighting at the funeral. I liked this as it has a nice light blue colour on them and the lighting on the character's face would give quite an depressive feel and can represent the characters feelings rather well.

Another photo that I found was a picture of some police officers on an underground train which is covered in grafiti showing how discusting and untidy and unapealing places are in 1980's New York. They don't seemed to be threatened and if anything they look more intimidating than modern day police officers. I chose to have this picture in our Ideas board as it shows the true new york city in the 1980's and not a clean and tidy place which is what it's made out to be.

In this photo I decided to find a picture of what the stage looks like for the actual show of rent and all the scafholding and how it is presented. I then found a photo of the same show but just another school/university's set and I chose to have these two as I thought it would be interesting to see how different or how similar our one will be.

2/12/15

In todays lesson we continued to add to our Ideas Map as in yesterdays lesson we hadn't filled much of it. We spent the first lesson finding more things to add to our Ideas Board and I found a photo of a resteraunt that has a lot of people at a table as to me I thought of the song "La Vie Boheme" as we're going to need a big table and attempt to find the right lights to make it looks like we're in a nice place.




Another picture that I found was an abandoned and ruined recording studio. I thought that it would be good to use this as a motivational thing for the people who play as Mark and Roger as the photo could show them that it's what it might have looked like when they moved in and made them realise and appreciate how far they have come.




For our second lesson we then moved on to something more practical and we started to work on the opening of Act 2 which begins with Seasons of Love. I wasn't present for when it was set and then we got to stage it yesterday. We staged it so that there is a combination of people on stage and others in with our audicence. This is so that the audience can feel really involved with what we are doing and also have something to watch. We have also set out what we will be doing whilst on stage. When the music starts, people on stage walk on instantly but rather slowly and when we start to sing we turn and face the audience and the people on the same level as the audience just walk around in a space and sing. When we get near the chours people who are off the stage walk up and then form a line with everyone on the front of the stage. We then have the soloists sing their lines and for the final chours we then do a step and click and then just stay still and sing for the rest of the song. I like the fact that there isn't anything complicated for coreography for this song and that it's staright forward for the movement and I think that an older audience member might like it as it's like a singing group but obviously in a show.

SoundScape Update

In yesterday's lesson we made a real effort and made sure that our scripts were all written out and that we had rehearsed it at least 2 times. Whilst the final script was being wrote, the rest of us were making sure that we recorded the sounds from the sound scape at the beginning. By doing this we hope to upload it to an audio piece of software called "Audacity" and then play the sounds one at a time and then after I'll attempt to speed them up and make them overlap each other so that it gives off a vibe that the audience are in a school environment.  I have used the "voice memo" app that is on my phone and I have the choice of editing them on "Garage Band" or "Audacity" and I've chosen to do the editing with Audacity as it's more reliable and also it means that it'll be an mp3 folder and is more easily accessible than something that's been edited on Garage Band.